State Gas Prices Hold Steady; Escambia County Sees Jump After Terminal Closure

May 17, 2021

Florida gas prices have held relatively steady even after last week’s Colonial Pipeline outage led to a surge in gasoline demand.

The state average price for gasoline is $2.89 per gallon. That’s 1-cent more than a week ago and 2 cents less than this year’s highest price of $2.91 per gallon, set back in March.

In Escambia County the average price per gallon Sunday night was $2.98, up a dime over last week. A low $2.92 could be found in North Escambia at a station on Highway 29 in Cantonment, but most stations were at $2.99 or over. A warehouse club in Pensacola had the county’s lowest price Sunday night at $2.81 per gallon. Early last week, Escambia County drivers had trouble finding gasoline after a temporary shutdown at the Pensacola fuel terminal.

Florida filling stations are still recovering from surging demand last week. Gasoline sales were reportedly 2-3 times stronger than normal, as drivers lined up at pumps to top off their tanks. Although Tallahassee is the only major market directly serviced by the Colonial Pipeline, outages were reported at various filling stations throughout the state due to “panic buying”.

Pictured: Drivers line up for gas early last week at the Speed Mart on Highway 29 at Tate School Road (above), the Circle K at Highway and East Kingsfield Road (below), and Murphy Oil at the Ensley Walmart (bottom). Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

4 Responses to “State Gas Prices Hold Steady; Escambia County Sees Jump After Terminal Closure”

  1. Shirley W Carr on May 18th, 2021 1:29 pm

    The retailers don’t make much money for selling gas . But it bring in people who will buy other stuff. I say please be kind to the people who are selling the gas , they have nothing to do with this mess.They are in the same boat we are in .

  2. B Richards on May 18th, 2021 10:04 am

    Hey people? Don’t hoard when there is news of a shortage or you create a crisis. Thank you. You know who you are.

  3. tg on May 17th, 2021 3:36 pm

    With summer Blend and vacations price rise is just getting started.

  4. Jason on May 17th, 2021 8:51 am

    And once the terminal re-opened and fuel started being delivered to stations, there should have been no reason for prices not to have returned to a level prior to the terminal closing. IMHO, I think this just gave the wholesaler and retailers a reason to increases pump prices while increasing their profits. I think that prices in Escambia County are 15 to 20 cents (maybe more) per gallon higher than they should be.